The 2018 Physicians for Human Rights National Student Conference was a tremendous success this year, in no small part to the generous support of the SOMA Foundation. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a NGO that uses the unique perspective and skillset of physicians to investigate and document human rights violations, give voice to survivors and witnesses, and promote reconciliation by ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes. Each year, the PHR Student Advisory Board selects one school to host the organization’s annual national conference – which TouroCOM-Harlem was honored to be chosen for this year – to discuss the ongoing human rights crises across the world. This was the first time TouroCOM has hosted a national conference, and TouroCOM was also the first osteopathic medical school to ever host the event.​This year’s conference theme was At the Intersections of Power: Communities in Crossfire, where we aimed to highlight the perspectives and stories of communities and individuals impacted by destabilizing and often authoritarian power structures. The conference gathered over 150 medical students (both DO and MD) from around the country on November 17-18 to present research posters, listen to leading speakers on human rights and social medicine, and engage each other in dialogue on these important issues.

As the first osteopathic medical school to host the conference, TouroCOM students did an exceptional job of promoting the values and tenets of the profession. For one, dozens of TouroCOM students stepped up at the last minute to help make sure the event ran smoothly – either by setting up posters, quickly breaking down sessions, or prepping food for conference attendees. It was truly a team effort. Additionally, the event gave TouroCOM an opportunity to build a stronger reputation and closer connections with our DO and MD peers. We had medical students from schools across the country approach our team to express how impressed and excited they were by the speakers who presented at the conference.

Additionally, our team put forth a strong media strategy to help promote the conference in our community and nationally. The conference got highlighted in several Harlem-based newspapers and radio stations, which will help to continue to improve the credibility and influence of both TouroCOM and the broader osteopathic profession in Harlem. It was also covered in several social media posts, including several of AACOM’s. Overall, we believe the conference was successful in two major ways: 1) it promoted the basic rights and dignity of all humans, certainly a core belief that all osteopathic physicians should uphold, and 2) it helped to build the credibility and interprofessional connections of our student body with DO and MD students from around the country.

Finally, we would be amiss not to mention the specifics of our IGR and thank the SOMA Foundation for your support. We were able to secure nearly all our top-choice speakers, and we could not have done so without your generous support. Your funds helped cover the honoraria costs for five of our speakers, each of whom provided vastly distinct but important perspectives on a variety of human rights issues. We are extremely grateful for your generosity and support of this event, and we hope it helped promote the values that the SOMA Foundation and the osteopathic medical profession stand for.

University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine: ​Mini-DO Day

“Mini-DO Day is an educational pilot and collaborative partnership between the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine student organizations and the Southside Independent School District. This event will be provided free of cost to SISD high school students. We envision Mini-DO Day to be a conglomerate of multiple workshops/sessions running simultaneously, revolving around advocacy, education, and health empowerment. The high school students will be given the opportunity to educate themselves on what it means to be an osteopathic physician, how it differs from an allopathic physician, as well as gain exposure to osteopathic manipulative techniques with trained guidance from the members of the Student Chapter of the American Academy of Osteopathy. In addition, they will receive education on and exposure to a multitude of relevant health/social justice issues, including women’s health, exploring interconnections between different art forms (art/literature/music) and medicine, immunizations, nutrition and exercise, to name a few. We envision our Mini-DO Day whereby students will learn about the different organizations, our school, and then break out into mini sessions with student groups to research over topics that are been pre-approved by the school liaison, Mr. Randy Escamilla.”

Mini-DO Day was hosted at Southside High School on January 30th, 2018 from 12:30-4:00 pm. From our previous experience working with our Community Engagement families during ¡SOMA Cenas!, we knew that we wanted to host the event at the high school to avoid the barrier of transportation. But then, we faced another challenge – after school jobs that a majority of the students have to help support themselves and/or their families. We met and discussed with the STEM coordinator over at the high school in addition to Randy Escamilla, school liaison, to provide the best experience for all of those involved; from the teachers, school, and the medical students, and received a better understanding of the engagement we were expected to receive on the day of the event. One can only hope and pray to have a successful event leading up to it, but to live through the experience and learn something about yourself is a reward in itself. From the beginning of being awarded the SOMA grant to the day of the event, we promoted this event as an opportunity to foster the relationship between UIWSOM and Southside HS. Some of us have been lucky to create a strong bond with our CE families, while others have had difficulty making a connection due to their family's stresses on a daily basis, lack of adequate communication, etc. But one of the key aspects in success is to foster a support network to help an individual grow. We saw this need and wanted to make an impact the best we knew how which was going to the high school and exposing the high school students to “medical school.”

Eight different organizations from the ~30 student organizations on our campus came to support our initiative which was a blast! Students were first introduced to the medical students chatting about what to expect for the day, what was going on in their lives, and what barriers they may face on a daily basis. We played an icebreaker game to promote open dialogue among the students as some of them may have felt uneasy being in a room full of 30+ medical students. Medical students opened up about their own personal barriers that they have faced or facing in light of their journey into medical school and to not allow those barriers define who they are. Next, students were emerged into the six different workshops that we had to provide – 1) Women in Osteopathic Medicine (AMWA chapter) & Women’s Health organization hosted a women’s health station that encouraged discussion over pelvic exams, heart health, and physical insecurities; 2) Student Osteopathic Surgical Association hosted a suturing and tying knot station; 3) Art in Medicine & M.I.N.D. fostered students to write down barriers that they face and then opened the exercise to how those barriers can be mitigated; 4) SAAO promoted osteopathic medicine and the philosophies behind our future profession; 5) Student National Medical Association hosted a station to practice listening to heart & lung sounds in addition to eliciting deep tendon reflexes; and 6) ExtrEMis (emergency medicine interest group) brought CPR manikins for the students to practice hands-only CPR techniques.​Altogether, we hosted over 70 high school students and had the help of over 30 medical students participate in Mini-DO Day! We all left that day filling accomplished – medical students learning how to interact with potentially future patients from a similar community like Southside and how to accommodate the intangible barriers that can occur; teachers who saw delight in their students eyes when going through the different workshops; and students who found a way to feel comfortable in pushing out of their natural element. Mini-DO Day is the first step in mending the gap between the two schools and an opportunity to grow together during our journeys of education.